Integrated circuit digital rights management techniques using physical level characterization

Digital rights management (DRM) of integrated circuits (ICs) is a crucially important task both economically and strategically. Several IC metering techniques have been proposed, but until now their effectiveness for royalty management has not been quantified. IC auditing is an important DRM step that goes beyond metering; it not only detects that a pirated IC has been produced but also determines the quantity of pirated ICs. Our strategic objective is to create a new intrinsic passive metering technique as well as the first IC auditing technique, and to maximize and quantify their effectiveness using statistical analysis and IC characterization techniques. Our main technical innovations include physical level gate characterization, a Bayesian approach for coincidence analysis, and an adaptation of animal counting techniques for IC production estimation. We evaluate the accuracy of the IC metering and auditing approach using simulations on a set of ISCAS benchmarks.